Granger, Gallagher leave committee posts as House GOP majority shrinks

Two outgoing House Republican defense hawks in charge of high-profile national security committees announced Friday they will vacate their respective chairmanships before the end of the year.

House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas, and Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis. , had already announced they would not seek reelection this November amid a slew of Republican retirements.

But Granger said Friday she would vacate her committee position while serving out the end of her term. At the same time, Gallagher said he would resign in April, further narrowing the House GOP’s thin majority and creating a vacant position atop the China-focused panel.

Granger announced she would step down as the Republican appropriations leader shortly after the House voted 286-134 to pass the fiscal 2024 government funding package — including the $825 billion defense spending bill — nearly six months overdue. The Senate must still vote to pass the bill, with funding for the Defense Department and several other agencies to expire at midnight.

Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, is surrounded by reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)

“Recognizing that an election year often results in final appropriations bills not getting enacted well until the next fiscal year, it is important that I do everything in my power to ensure a seamless transition before the FY25 bill development begins in earnest,” Granger wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “I, therefore, respectfully request that as soon as possible, the GOP Steering Committee and Conference select a new Chair of the Appropriations Committee to serve out the remainder of the 118th Congress.”

Granger, who chaired the defense spending panel before becoming the Appropriations Committee chairwoman, wrote that she would remain as chair emeritus to advise and counsel colleagues.

Conversely, Gallagher — who also chairs the Armed Services Committee’s cyber and information technologies panel — announced he would resign April 19. As chairman of the China committee chairman, Gallagher championed policies to “arm Taiwan to the teeth” to deter a possible Chinese invasion, while framing the Sino-U.S. rivalry as a “new Cold War.”

“I’ve worked closely with House Republican leadership on this timeline and look forward to seeing Speaker Johnson appoint a new chair to carry out the important mission of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,” Gallagher said in a statement.

Gallagher’s early departure will reduce the embattled House Republican majority to a one-vote margin given the resignation of Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., on Friday. Buck announced his resignation date earlier in March. The Colorado special election to replace Buck is slated for June 25.

As one of his last acts, Buck became the first — and so far only — Republican to sign a discharge petition that would force a House vote on the $95 billion foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan , which the Senate passed 70-29 in February . The discharge petition would need to gather 217 signatures for House lawmakers to force a vote on the package.

Johnson has so far refused to put the bill on the floor amid opposition to Ukraine aid from former President Donald Trump and the right flank of his caucus. Traditional Republican defense hawks like Granger and Gallagher have found themselves increasingly sidelined in the House by Trump’s America First wing of the party .

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

两名即将卸任的众议院共和党国防鹰派议员，同时也是备受瞩目的国家安全委员会主席，于周五宣布他们将在年底前卸任各自的职务。

众议院拨款委员会主席、德克萨斯州共和党众议员凯·格兰杰和众议院中国共产党委员会主席、威斯康星州共和党众议员迈克·加拉格尔此前已宣布，由于共和党内多位议员退休，他们不会在今年11月寻求连任。

但格兰杰周五表示，她将在完成剩余任期的同时辞去委员会职务。与此同时，加拉格尔表示他将于4月辞职，这将进一步缩小众议院共和党本就微弱的多数席位，并导致负责中国事务的委员会主席一职空缺。

格兰杰在众议院以286票赞成、134票反对通过2024财年政府拨款法案（其中包括8250亿美元的国防开支法案）后不久，宣布辞去共和党拨款委员会领袖一职。该法案已逾期近六个月。参议院仍需投票表决通过该法案，国防部和其他几个机构的拨款将于午夜到期。

德克萨斯州共和党众议员凯·格兰杰在华盛顿国会山被记者们包围。（美联社）

格兰杰在致众议院议长、路易斯安那州共和党众议员迈克·约翰逊的信中写道：“鉴于选举年往往导致最终拨款法案要到下一个财政年度才能顺利通过，我必须尽一切努力确保在2025财年法案正式开始制定之前实现平稳过渡。因此，我恳请共和党指导委员会和会议尽快选出一位新的拨款委员会主席，以完成第118届国会的剩余任期。”

格兰杰在担任拨款委员会主席之前曾担任国防开支委员会主席，她写道，她将留任名誉主席，为同事提供建议和指导。

相反，加拉格尔——他同时也是军事委员会网络和信息技术小组的主席——宣布将于4月19日辞职。作为中国委员会主席，加拉格尔倡导“武装台湾到牙齿”的政策，以阻止中国可能的入侵，同时将中美竞争描述为“新冷战”。

加拉格尔在一份声明中表示：“我与众议院共和党领导层就此时间表进行了密切合作，并期待看到约翰逊议长任命一位新主席来执行中国共产党特别委员会的重要使命。”

加拉格尔的提前离任将使处境艰难的共和党众议院多数席位优势进一步缩小至仅剩一票，此前科罗拉多州共和党众议员肯·巴克已于周五辞职。巴克于三月初宣布了他的辞职日期。科罗拉多州将举行特别选举，以填补巴克留下的空缺，选举定于6月25日举行。

作为其任期内的最后举措之一，巴克成为首位——也是迄今为止唯一一位——签署强制众议院就950亿美元援助乌克兰、以色列和台湾法案进行投票的共和党议员。该法案已于今年2月在参议院以70比29的投票结果获得通过。这份强制众议院投票的请愿书需要收集到217个签名才能生效。

由于前总统唐纳德·特朗普及其党团右翼反对向乌克兰提供援助，约翰逊至今仍拒绝将该法案提交众议院表决。像格兰杰和加拉格尔这样的传统共和党鹰派人士，在众议院中越来越受到特朗普领导的“美国优先”派系的排挤。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。